Where in Manhattan Does Mad Men’s Don Draper Live, Exactly?

July 28, 2010

If you don’t watch Mad Men, well, here are your excuses. And if you do watch Mad Men, then you know that lead character Don Draper’s living in Manhattan full-time these days. But where?

Funny you should ask, because True/Slant blogger Lewis Grossberger actually did the ground work to find out. Grossberger notes that the show has implied that Don Draper lives off of Waverly and Seventh Avenue, which is where he headed over to. His logic for finding the spot:

I figured Don would be on (comparatively) quiet Waverly rather than hectic, clangorous Sixth (which the city fathers once tried to get New Yorkers to call “Avenue of the Americas” and failed utterly). He has a lot of dissipating to sleep off.

I also figured Don for a large-apartment-building inmate rather than a brownstoner; he’s the kind of guy who’d need a doorman to run interference for him, make up excuses when necessary, calm down and/or misdirect jealous husbands, hysterical women brandishing guns, that sort of thing.

So what’d he find? 136 Waverly Place: The Waverly. And how’d he know?

I just knew.

It had the right look. Old, discreet, fifteen floors, maybe 100 apartments, faded yellow brick façade, just off the corner, southwest side.

Good enough for us. CityReality describes the building as a “handsome 16-story apartment building at 136 Waverly Place,” which “was erected in 1928 and contains 76 cooperative apartments.” Also: “The beige-brick building is also distinguished by its unusual quoins and two different styles of spandrels and by its very ornate, two-story, canopied entrance surround and two-story rusticated base.” And no doubt, they’re nice digs if you can get ’em.

He also takes note of some of the surrounding joints: Hong Kong Tailor Jack, which Grossberger notes “will come in handy for emergency clothing repairs” and Waverly Restaurant “too downscale for [Draper] to ever eat in. But the place has booze..”

How much would Draper have to fork over for a spot in The Waverly today, though? Again, via City Reality, try:

In other words, assuming he actually would live there these days — and given the profile, he might! — Draper would have to be closing the big accounts like gangbusters. Or have an awesome trust fund. Or be killing people on the side, or whatever Manhattanites do for that kind of money these days.